| PEN International | |
| Type: | NGO |
| Purpose: | Promote literature and defend freedom of expression worldwide. |
| Headquarters: | London |
| Region Served: | International |
| Leader Title: | President |
| Leader Name: | Burhan Sönmez |
PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010)[1] is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921[2] to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous International PEN centres in more than 100 countries.
Other goals included: to emphasise the role of literature in the development of mutual understanding and world culture; to fight for freedom of expression; and to act as a powerful voice on behalf of writers harassed, imprisoned and sometimes killed for their views.
The first PEN Club was founded at the Florence Restaurant in London on October 5, 1921,[3] by Catherine Amy Dawson Scott, with John Galsworthy as its first president. Its first members included Joseph Conrad, Elizabeth Craig, George Bernard Shaw, and H. G. Wells.
PEN originally stood for "Poets, Essayists, Novelists", but now stands for "Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists, Novelists" and includes writers of any form of literature, such as journalists and historians.[4]
The club established these aims:
The president of PEN International is Burhan Sönmez. Past presidents since Galsworthy have included E. M. Forster, Alberto Moravia, Heinrich Böll, Arthur Miller, Mario Vargas Llosa, Homero Aridjis, Jiří Gruša, John Ralston Saul and Jennifer Clement.
PEN International has its headquarters in London and is composed of autonomous PEN Centres in more than 100 countries around the world, each of which is open to writers, journalists, translators, historians and others actively engaged in any branch of literature.
It is a non-governmental organization in formal consultative relations with UNESCO[5] and Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.[6]
PEN summarises its Charter, based on resolutions passed at its International Congresses:[7]
PEN International Writers in Prison Committee[8] works on behalf of persecuted writers worldwide. Established in 1960[9] in response to increasing attempts to silence voices of dissent by imprisoning writers, the Writers in Prison Committee monitors the cases of as many as 900 writers annually who have been imprisoned, tortured, threatened, attacked, made to disappear, and killed for the peaceful practice of their profession. It publishes a bi-annual Case List[10] documenting free expression violations against writers around the world.
The committee also coordinates the PEN International membership's campaigns that aim towards an end to these attacks and to the suppression of freedom of expression worldwide.[11]
PEN International Writers in Prison Committee is a founding member of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), a global network of 90 non-governmental organisations that monitors censorship worldwide and defends journalists, writers, internet users and others who are persecuted for exercising their right to freedom of expression.[12]
It is also a member of IFEX's Tunisia Monitoring Group (TMG), a coalition of twenty-one free expression organisations that began lobbying the Tunisian government to improve its human rights record in 2005.[13] Since the Arab Spring events that led to the collapse of the Tunisian government, TMG has worked to ensure constitutional guarantees of free expression and human rights within the country.
On 15 January 2016, PEN International joined human rights organisations and the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, along with seven other organisations, to protest against the 2013 imprisonment and 2015 sentencing of musicians Mehdi Rajabian and Yousef Emadi, and filmmaker Hossein Rajabian, and called on the head of the judiciary and other Iranian authorities to drop the charges against them.[14]
Ma Thida is the Chair of this committee.[15]
See main article: List of PEN literary awards. The various PEN affiliations offer many literary awards across a broad spectrum.
A grove of trees beside Lake Burley Griffin forms the PEN International memorial in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. The dedication reads: "The spirit dies in all of us who keep silent in the face of tyranny." The memorial was officially opened on 17 November 1997.
A cast-iron sculpture entitled Witness, commissioned by English PEN to mark their 90th anniversary and created by Antony Gormley, stands outside the British Library in London. It depicts an empty chair, and is inspired by the symbol used for 30 years by English PEN to represent imprisoned writers around the world. It was unveiled on 13 December 2011.[16]
| PEN International presidents[19] | ||
|---|---|---|
| John Galsworthy | 1921–1932 | |
| H. G. Wells | 1932–1935 | |
| Jules Romains | 1936–1939 | |
Wartime Presidential Committee:
| 1941–1947 | |
| Maurice Maeterlinck | 1947–1949 | |
| Benedetto Croce | 1949–1953 | |
| Charles Langbridge Morgan | 1954–1956 | |
| Andre Chamson | 1957–1959 | |
| Alberto Moravia | 1960–1962 | |
| Victor E. van Vriesland | 1963–1965 | |
| Arthur Miller | 1966–1969 | |
| Pierre Emmanuel | 1970–1971 | |
| Heinrich Böll | 1972–1973 | |
| V. S. Pritchett | 1974–1976 | |
| Mario Vargas Llosa | 1977–1979 | |
| Per Wästberg | 1979–1986 | |
| Francis King | 1986–1989 | |
| René Tavernier | May–November 1989 | |
| Per Wästberg (Interim) | November 1989 – May 1990 | |
| György Konrád | 1990–1993 | |
| Ronald Harwood | 1993–1997 | |
| Homero Aridjis | 1997–2003 | |
| Jiri Grusa | 2003–2009 | |
| John Ralston Saul | 2009–2015 | |
| Jennifer Clement | 2015–2021 | |
| Burhan Sönmez | 2021– | |